Estacada Sagas

By Kathryn Hurd

Like the train sitting at the bottom of its lake, the treasures of Estacada's history often elude the casual observer. From covert operations in a famous hotel to the untold trimmings of logger lore, surprising tales abound in this region. Learn of an explosion that threw men 150 feet away, a nudist club just out of town and a firing range under a high school auditorium. Kathryn Hurd dives into the trials and triumphs of Estacada's past, bringing unpublished images to light and charting the course of family stories handed down through five generations.

• Language: English
• Publisher: The History Press
• Release date: Jul 10, 2017
• ISBN: 9781625857385

Kathryn Hurd

Kathryn Hurd thrives on historical research and personal interviews. In this, her fifth book, she uses her background as a professional storyteller to weave complex information into fascinating stories.

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Introduction

Books record and explore history. People change and make history. This is a book about people. Some are famous, others were known only by a few of their fellow residents, but all were unique.

Estacada has a rich and colorful history, and my goal in writing this book was to record some of that information before it is lost. Little of the history of this area was recorded and saved, so the primary source of information is in the hands and memories of those whose families have lived it.

I felt great pleasure in collecting the stories and images for this book. Each story was enlightening and fascinating; interestingly, many stories intertwined. Were it not for the recollections of these wonderful people, this history would be lost forever.

I recorded everything as people related their stories and left the names as they were at the time of the story, although some have since changed. Squaw Mountain, named before Estacada was founded, is now Tumala Mountain, and the names of other roads have been changed, as well. The local newspaper has been known as Estacada News but also Clackamas County News and the Progress.

Over three thousand people live within the city limits, but more than eighteen thousand people who also call Estacada home live in the surrounding unincorporated communities of Garfield, Springwater, Dodge, Viola, Currinsville, George, Eagle Creek and Porter. The residents share a long history—settlers began arriving to the area as early as 1850.

If, after reading this book, you would like to learn more about us, visit the Estacada Public Library and view the interactive map and history timeline available online at www.EstacadaHistory.com.

Inside this book are historic stories from the mouths of the people who lived them. Enjoy.

1

Big Beginnings

WHAT’S IN A NAME?

Few topics create more interest among local residents than how Estacada got its name.

In the mid-1800s, the Clackamas River territory attracted hundreds of people searching for a new life in the West. These were tough, independent, hardworking individuals. Some may have also been hard drinking, because the community was originally known as Whiskey Flats.

The first bridge across the Clackamas River near the settlement was created in 1859 from trees felled across the river. It broke down completely when a herd of cattle was driven across it in 1862. Tragically, the bovines perished in the fall or by drowning. The fallen timbers were replaced by a wooden structure, built above the water’s current, allowing settlers heading to California gold fields access to a road that passed through Springwater and Viola, an easier route than the one through Oregon City. Travelers went to the little town now called High Bridge.

The origins of the first two names are fairly straightforward, but a century-long controversy surrounds the source of the permanent moniker. There are several theories, all of which are the result of the Morris Brothers Investment Bankers headquartered in Portland, Oregon.

By 1901, the city of Portland, hungry for electric power, grew increasingly reliant on an extensive electrified network of trolleys for transportation. Introduction of electric lights and newly unveiled electric appliances increased the need for power.

Morris Brothers formed the Oregon Water & Power Company (OW&P) and directed George W. Brown, its chief engineer, to search out a location for a new hydroelectric plant. The Clackamas River appeared to have possibilities, so Brown hired John Zobrist to guide him up the river. They found the ideal spot a short distance above High Bridge.

In 1903, the Morris Brothers Investment Bankers formed Oregon Water Power & Railway (OWP&R). The firm laid rails up the Clackamas River to move supplies and manpower for the building of Cazadero Dam and Faraday Powerhouse.

Then Morris Brothers formed the Oregon Water & Power Township Company and bought all the land from the Zobrist, Pierce and Williams claims. The purpose of the township company was to capitalize on the railroad by selling land and creating a town below the dam. An advertising campaign used the railroad to draw potential landowners up the river and encourage city dwellers to take a relaxing round-trip to a scenic paradise. The company built a grand hotel and a beautiful park along the river as enticements.

On December 27, 1903, OW&P Township Company president C.W. Morrow, land agent W.P. Keady, his assistant George W. Kelly and OWP&R president and railway manager W.H. Hurlburt met in the township company office at First and Alder Streets in downtown Portland to choose a name for the new town. Each man placed a slip of paper with a proposed name in a hat. The name on the paper that was drawn was Estacada. Or was it? And what does the name mean? A few theories propose the answer.

Travelers taking the train disembarked beside the Estacada Hotel, which was the town’s prestigious landmark hostelry and restaurant from 1903 to 1929. Courtesy of Nancy Tedrow.

Claim no. 1: George P. Kelly saw the name Estacado on a map of the United States and liked the sound of it. In western Texas and eastern New Mexico, the term llano Estacado means staked plan in Spanish. Thinking that Estacada sounded more American, he changed the last letter before putting it in the hat.

Claim no. 2: George Kelly suggested Estacado, but the sign maker misinterpreted the name. Thinking it was a misspelling, he penned the last letter as an a. Perhaps Estacada got its name from an early twentieth-century version of a typo.

Claim no. 3: Estacada is a combination of Esther Williams, from whom Morris Brothers had purchased much of the land on which the town was built, and Morrow’s land agent, Mr. Keady. The name Keady was pronounced Cady. Hence, Esther plus Cady equals Estacada.

Nearly a dozen emotional handwritten documents have been signed attesting to the correct source and meaning of the name. The only point on which they agree is that the name was drawn from a hat. Now, over a century later, speculation still exists. How did Estacada get its name? The question remains unanswered.

ESTACADA HOTEL

The hotel was resplendent with natural woods. Furniture of precious woods, wicker and bamboo graced its forty-seven rooms. Once construction was completed in 1903, advertising material published by Oregon Power & Railway Company touted the hotel as a modest, homelike, and comfortable inn, where the visitor may make his home and headquarters during his vacation.

The following quote appeared in the menu of the Portland Restaurant, inside the Estacada Hotel:

He may live without books.

What is knowledge but grieving?

Inside the hotel. The family-run Portland Restaurant dining room was popular with visitors and townspeople alike. Courtesy of Nancy Tedrow.

He may live without hope.

What is hope but decaying?

He may live without love

What is passion but pining?

But where is the man who can live without dining?

ESTACADA PARK

Originally, the railroad transported workers and equipment to build Cazadero Dam, but Oregon Water Power & Railway increased its investment by designing the park to entice Portlanders to make a two-and-one-half-hour trolley trip to Estacada. At one time, it took five trolleys a day to carry all the visitors to the city. The largest group was the Portland Employees Organization picnic in 1922, when attendees came by a four-car electric train for baseball games, sack races, music, dancing and strolling through the park.

The sixty-acre park extended west from the covered bridge over the Clackamas River all the way to the site of River Mill Dam. A path traversed the entire length, providing a view of the Clackamas River rapids for those who came for excursions or parties. A stairway led down the bank to a platform at water level, where anglers were rewarded with a plentiful catch of trout.

Visitors and local families posed for photographs under the lovely arched entrance to Estacada Park. Welcoming visitors for the first time in October 1906, the park proved to be a valuable attraction until 1922. Not far from the park entrance was a gazebo, a graceful structure that was built for local musicians to entertain picnickers with a summer concert. It was also a romantic setting for lovers. A pavilion adjacent to the gazebo housed a piano and masks for dancing parties.

As automobile travel increased and interest in the railway waned, Oregon Water Power & Railway sold the park land to the Portland Telegram Subscription Department. In turn, for thirty-five dollars, Portland Telegram sold a two-year subscription to the newspaper plus title to a small twenty-foot by one-hundred-foot lot for a summer cabin.

HELLO, ARE YOU THERE?

In 1905, barely thirty years after Alexander Graham Bell invented the telephone, the Estacada telephone office was erected by M.C. Adkins. This was a cooperative venture among Adkins, B.O. Brownwell, John B. Hairant, J.W. Reed and R.A. Stralter.

In the beginning, residents of Estacada desiring a telephone bought a share of stock in the cooperative. Membership was limited (if twenty members on one party line can be called limited). A stock share included installation of the oblong oak wood crank telephone on the wall in the kitchen.

For people living on a farm in an outlying area, acquiring phone service was a bit more complicated. Granville Linn, for example, had to buy his own phone, probably from Montgomery Ward. He had to buy the batteries, wire, connectors, insulators and poles. On top of that, he had to install his own phone and run his line from the farmhouse to the main Currinsville telephone line.

Conversations were carried on two bare wires, the kind used to train berries, wrapped together. In Estacada, telephone poles were installed. Out in the country, however, the wires were attached to trees and makeshift suspension holders and, in a few cases, run along the barbed wire on top of a fence. Wind and rain interfered with the uninsulated wires, in many cases causing conversations to cut out. We can sympathize with those callers, since losing contact while on the phone can be frustrating even with today’s technology.

A phone like this one hung on the kitchen wall in most Estacada-area homes from the 1880s to the 1920s. Courtesy of Mike Doolittle.

The phone box in the kitchen was placed at about head height so that it would be easy to speak into the mouthpiece by standing in front of it. The receiver, attached by a cord, was cradled on a hook on the left side of the telephone box. The telephone book was suspended on a string from a hook or nail beside the phone.

If a person wanted to talk to someone, she removed the receiver and turned the crank on the right-hand side of the box, which alerted the operator at the switchboard in the phone company office. Operators could connect a customer to another house or business or switch to long-distance assistance in Portland. If the operator wasn’t busy, she would sometimes chat a bit before ringing the number desired.

When a call came into a home, it jangled the pair of bells on